


Crimson

by CarburetorCastiel



Series: Spectrum Love [1]
Category: Captain America (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Cute Kids, Domestic Fluff, Established Relationship, Fluff, Gift Fic, M/M, Mental Health Issues, One Shot, Parents, Post CACW, Post-Canon, Ruckus the Dog, Slice of Life, Therapy Dog, but he is okay, day in the life, good dads, gooey steve rogers, partial amnesia bucky, post cryo, ptsd bucky, slight pain mostly floof
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-06
Updated: 2017-04-06
Packaged: 2018-10-15 09:31:32
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,222
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10554042
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CarburetorCastiel/pseuds/CarburetorCastiel
Summary: Years after being released from cryo, Bucky lives with Steve and they have two children and Bucky has a service dog. Today doesn't necessarily start out as one of Bucky's best days but he is doing so much better than he was years before and any day that ends with his family safe at home and Steve curled around him is a good day in Bucky's eyes.





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [yikesevans](https://archiveofourown.org/users/yikesevans/gifts).



> This is dedicated to Naturall (Natalie) who did me a favor and in exchange I gave this gift fic which I had so much fun writing. Thanks for the prompt of domestic parents with a doggo. Love you.
> 
> (Notice: The pictures are smaller to help the flow on mobile reading. Please click the links below to see the aesthetic board better.)
> 
> [Aesthetic Link](https://78.media.tumblr.com/2974fa0e90d97ddd2225713fa9589b0b/tumblr_pdkgmgl0FJ1snayoeo2_540.jpg)
> 
> [Color Code](https://78.media.tumblr.com/66180b508b2928dfeb3d5db3c7f480da/tumblr_pdkgmgl0FJ1snayoeo1_540.jpg)

\---

Steve yawned and rubbed at his eyes. It was the early afternoon but he was still really tired. He had been up with the baby several times in the night and then took his morning run with Sam earlier than usual today. He had mostly just been lounging around the house with the kids since then.

 

He looked around and his four-year-old wasn't glued to the couch watching Pixar movies like she had been before. Steve put his hands in the pockets of his sweatpants and trudged through the hall to find the door to his and Bucky's room cracked open.

 

Steve went inside and found their little daughter had climbed up on the bed next to Bucky and was just about to poke him in the face to wake him. "Sweetheart, let's not do that. Let Daddy sleep," Steve said in a hushed tone from the doorway.

 

Sarah looked up from her perch next to Bucky and whined, "But Daddy's been asleep all morning." She sat back on her heels and looked back to Bucky's gently sleeping face and had the urge again to poke it.

 

"I know, Baby, but Daddy needs his rest," Steve said and held out a hand for her. "Let's go back out to the living room and keep watching your movie while we wait for Daddy to wake up.

 

Glancing from Bucky to Steve and then to the German Shepard tucked securely by Bucky's feet, Sarah said, "Can I wake up Ruckus?"

 

"No, Daddy needs Ruckus with him. Let them both sleep," Steve said and moved out of the doorframe to come pick up his daughter.

 

Before he got to her, Bucky stirred quietly and blinked up the little girl. "Oh, Sarah Bear," he said sleepily and grinned at her. "How long have you been here?" He looked over to Steve as he pulled Sarah down into a cuddle next to him.

 

"Papa said I couldn't wake you up," she said with a pout and nuzzled against Bucky.

 

Steve placed a hand on the top of Bucky's head and leaned down to give him a morning kiss. "How do you feel this morning, Baby?"

 

Bucky had a habit of sleeping in but most of the time it wasn't all the way until noon. Today was one of his bad days, where he got overwhelmed and upset and fatigued and just couldn't get out of bed. This had been a common theme since he was released from cryo and came home to Steve years previously.

 

It was like before when he was on the run, his brain and body didn't have time to stop and be depressed. He had to go, go, go all the time and be upset up until the point that he shoved it from his mind and went on to the next thing to survive. Ever since the fighting and the chasing and the killing stopped, his life and loss caught up with him.

 

Steve found him a good therapist in New York and he had been going once a week for seven years now. It really helped him but nothing could cure him. He still had night terrors and amnesia problems and got panic attacks if he wasn't careful.

 

The best thing for him had been when they found a place that helped assign people in need with service dogs. That's when Bucky got Ruckus - his loyal helper and loving friend. He did what no one else could do for Bucky and was always by his side no matter what. When Steve needed to leave town for a bit or even just went out to the store for groceries, Bucky still had Ruckus and both men felt much more confident in Bucky's safety and sanity knowing he was around.

 

"I'm mostly alright," Bucky conceded and he held Sarah to him as sat up in bed. "How is the baby?" He asked and reached a hand down to pet Ruckus's fur.

 

"He's okay," Steve said and took Sarah from Bucky so he could get out of bed slowly but determinedly. "Long night last night, but he has been asleep for about an hour and a half now."

 

Bucky nodded and stretched a little. Ruckus was awake now and standing on the bed watching him dutifully. Sarah reached from her spot in Steve's arms to pet him and Steve put her down so she could hug the Shepard around the neck. "I'm a little hungry," Bucky said and slipped his hand in with Steve's. "Do we have anything made up or should we order something in?"

 

Steve guided them back out towards the kitchen and Ruckus and Sarah hopped out in front of the two men to get there first. "We don't have anything and I don't feel like cooking right now. Do you want to just order some pizza?"

 

Bucky nodded and broke another yawn. He peeked into the dark nursery where a faint nightlight illuminated his son’s face. "He's awake," he said to Steve and walked in towards the crib. "My Charlie Boy is awake." Bucky crooned to his son whose eyes were fixating on the solar system mobile above his crib slowly turning in circles. Bucky scooped him up gently and brought him into the hall to Steve.

 

Steve kissed Charlie's head and they headed for the kitchen where Ruckus was happily eating from his bowl and Sarah was coloring on a giant piece of paper on the kitchen table. Steve made up a bottle for Charlie and handed it to Bucky to feed him before he pulled out his phone to call the pizza place a few blocks down.

 

Charlie sucked quietly at the bottle and stared up at his Daddy. He closed his tiny hands into fists over and over again as he ate and Bucky couldn't help but watch the little wrinkles in his fingers with a growing sense of calm and security. "Who's my big strong boy?" He asked an unresponsive Charlie. "Is it Charlie? Is it you? Are you my big strong boy?"

 

Sarah threw a crayon down on the table and whined to Steve, “Papa, I’m hungry!” She sighed down at her scribbled drawings on the paper and slumped her shoulders like she wasn’t impressed with what she saw.

 

“I just ordered us some pizza, Sarah. It will be here soon,” Steve said and moved to clean up some rogue crayons that made their way to the floor. “How about Papa draws you some flowers and you color them in, okay? We can do that while we wait for food.”

 

Sarah chewed her lip for a moment in contemplation. Then she looked over at her little brother in Bucky’s arms. “Charlie gets to eat now,” she observed grumpily and picked up a dark blue crayon, which was her favorite shade and had been taped together when she accidentally snapped it that morning.

 

Bucky came over to the table and said, “Yes, Sweetheart, because Charlie can’t eat pizza yet. And he can’t wait very long to eat either. You can have some carrots if you want a snack before pizza gets here.” He slipped his free hand on the back of her neck and started to lean down to give her a kiss on the top of her head before she pulled away in protest.

 

“Cold robo-hand, Daddy!” She yelped and furiously rubbed at the skin on her neck to warm it up.

 

“Sorry, Sarah, robo-hand is a little cold, isn’t it?” Bucky apologized and clenched his metal hand into a fist a few times idly. Stark had made him a new arm once he came out of cryo and he made it just as strong and complex as his old arm but capable of being so much gentler. At the time, Steve and Bucky didn’t have their children yet but Tony knew that Steve was planning on eventually talking to Bucky about having kids so he wanted to make sure that they wouldn’t accidentally be hurt by their father. Calling it a ‘robo-hand’ around their kids was Bruce’s idea. He thought it sounded a lot cuter than saying ‘Daddy’s weaponized metal arm that he has because his other one was torn off in an accident in the forties.’

 

Steve reached out for Bucky’s metal hand and brought it to his lips and kissed it lightly. “Oh, Sarah is right. You’re freezing.”

 

“I’m not freezing, it’s robo-hand,” Bucky chuckled and switched Charlie in his arms so he could press his real hand to Steve’s. “See? This one is fine.”

 

Nodding, Steve turned back to drawing some flowers for Sarah to color in. “And you’re sure you don’t want Tony to make a new one for you now that we are retired?”

 

Bucky huffed and held Charlie close to him as he ate from his bottle and stared up at his Daddy. “Yes, Steve, I’m sure. What would I do if something were to happen to one of you and I needed to protect my family? I need an arm that can be safe but also a weapon. That’s what this one is.”

 

Steve was wholeheartedly convinced that they wouldn’t be running into trouble again and that they would be able to live out the rest of their lives completely safe and relatively normal. But he did understand where Bucky was coming from. And Bucky had more reason than most to be worried that everything he knew would be taken from him without a moment’s notice and he would have to fight tooth and nail to get it back. “Okay, Love. No new robo-hand.”

 

“No new robo-hand,” Sarah agreed and started messily filling in an entire flower with just the dark blue crayon she liked.

 

Bucky took Charlie and went to sit on the couch while he waited for the pizza to come. Ruckus bounded over and hopped up next to him and nuzzled his head gently onto Bucky’s lap. He sat quietly just watching his son and paying attention to the way his tiny eyelashes moved when he blinked. After a while, there was a knock on the door and Steve got up to pay the pizza man.

 

Sarah immediately tore into a slice of pizza and got hot cheese and sauce on her cheeks, which Steve had to wipe off quickly while she yelled about it burning. “Sarah Bear, you got to let it cool down,” Bucky chastised softly and returned to the table to eat. He waited for Steve to cut up Sarah’s pizza into bite size pieces that she could blow on first and then he handed Charlie off to him so he could get plates and slices of pizza for himself and Steve.

 

“So,” Steve said through a bite of pizza, still holding Charlie. “Clint and Sam are coming over later today to help put together Sarah’s new bed and our new dresser. “Nat said she would come help but she doesn’t want to so she’s going somewhere with Wanda and Bruce today. I don’t know what they are doing. All I know is Tony was forbidden to join and he is really mad about it.”

 

Bucky grinned and brushed his fingers through his hair. He wouldn’t say it in front of Steve but he quite liked it when Tony was upset. Not because there was much bad blood between the two of them now but they still just didn’t get along much at all and anything that bugged Tony was a good thing in Bucky’s book.

 

The start of the afternoon went by smoothly and when Clint and Sam showed up, Sarah was sitting on the ground by her toy box and lazily pulling things out and putting them back in again when she couldn’t decide what to play with. Bucky was going to try to put her down for a nap but she was not having it. So instead, she blinked slowly and sleepily every couple of seconds and stared at her toys with glazed eyes.

 

“Sarah,” Steve called from the door. “Uncle Sam and Uncle Clint are here and they want Sarah hugs.”

 

Sarah got up and halfheartedly went to give the two men hugs. Clint was pleased as punch to see her and lifted her up and bounced her around saying, “I missed my Jellybean! It’s been so long.” He looked over to Bucky and smiled before putting Sarah down and shuffling over to the couch. “And there’s my man Charles.” He held up his hand for the baby to high five and Bucky gingerly picked up one of his little fists and bopped it against Clint’s palm.

 

Sam shucked off his coat and put it on the hook by the door before turning to Steve and giving him a hug too. “I told you, Cap. It’s weird when you call me Uncle Sam ever since Bucky said it just made him think of military promotional posters back in the day.”

 

“He’ll get over it. So will you,” Steve said and clapped Sam on the back. “Thanks for coming to help.”

 

Sam nodded and headed to Sarah’s room with Steve to get started on putting together her new bed. She had desperately wanted a bunk bed and begged her parents for it for a while before Steve finally gave in. Bucky protested, saying it was dangerous and she might fall off of the top bed, but Steve eventually got him to cool down about it and they ended up buying her a fairly short wooden bunk bed.

 

Bucky got up off the couch with Charlie falling asleep in his arms and walked to Sarah’s room with Clint. “Steve, Baby, I might take the kids to the park while you guys are working on this,” Bucky said and looked down at his tired son. “Charlie is falling asleep and I think the noise will be too much for him.”

 

That wasn’t true, though. Charlie was the type of baby that could sleep through anything and Bucky and Steve both knew it. Steve got up and came over to Bucky to pull him into the hall. Steve knew that sometimes on Bucky’s bad days, too much noise or overstimulation could cause him to have a panic attack or lash out or get bad headaches. “Do you have a headache?” He asked and looked Bucky over like he could see if he was in pain.

 

Shaking his head, Bucky reached out for Steve’s hand and said quietly, “I’d just rather not have an issue while Sam and Clint are here. So I figure I’ll just go to the park for a while and let Sarah play on the playground and let Ruckus run around a bit.”

 

“Okay, Baby, I’ll call you when we are done,” Steve kissed Bucky’s forehead and then his lips. “You’ll be alright?”

 

“Yes, I have Ruckus, I have my phone. I’m fine. I promise.” Bucky smiled weakly at Steve and thought that it probably didn’t instill much confidence but he really did think he would be okay.

 

Steve helped get Charlie into his stroller and get Ruckus into his service dog coat and then he saw the four of them out the door before going back to help Sam and Clint.

 

Bucky pushed the stroller down the sidewalk with his metal hand and held Sarah’s hand with his other. She chattered on to him about nothing in particular as they walked and she kept a tight grasp on Ruckus’ leash even though he was trained to stay with Bucky at all times. He didn’t even need to wear the leash but it made Steve feel more at ease if he knew that there was a tether from the dog to Bucky.

 

Once they got to the park, Sarah bounded towards the swing set and immediately hopped on. Bucky sat one of the benches and positioned the stroller so Charlie was facing away from the sun as he slept. Ruckus, released of his leash within the confines of the fenced in park, created an elliptical route that he trotted along which went from Bucky to Sarah over and over again.

 

Bucky watched Sarah swing and smiled softly to himself. She would be five years old in a few months and Bucky just couldn’t believe it. It had seemed like no time at all from when they were signing the adoption papers and giving her a name to now. Steve had chosen her name. Sarah, after his mother, of course. Not that Bucky didn’t get to choose her name as well because he was all for naming her after Steve’s mom, but Steve had said immediately to Bucky that he got to name the next one. They had only had Sarah for less than a day and Steve was already talking about the next one.

 

Once they were able to get paired with another woman looking for an open adoption, it was Bucky’s turn to think of names. He had roughly six months from when they met the birth mother to when Charlie came into the world to decide what to call him. For Sarah, she was already born when they signed the papers so they knew she was a girl. But they didn’t want to know with Charlie and so Bucky was tasked to find two names that could work or one name that could go either way.

 

He hadn’t decided for sure until the first time he held Charlie after he was born. Bucky looked briefly up at Steve, then back down at their new little son and said, “Charles – We will call him Charlie.”

 

Steve kissed the top of Bucky’s head and then the baby’s and asked, “Why Charlie?” as he held up Sarah to look at her new little brother.

 

“Our first kiss was in the back row at a showing of a Charlie Chaplin movie,” Bucky said simply and with an intense odd clarity that he didn’t always have about his past. He had been working with his therapist and Steve to recover memories and things had been going pretty well for him but anything too early before World War II was usually too difficult to dredge up or came clouded in too much uncertainty or false recollections. But this one Bucky knew. He could see it. He could feel Steve’s chapped lips and his own nervous hand graze Steve’s thigh. And he could hear the relieved giggle that Steve made after the kiss because finally, he had his answer as to whether Bucky loved him as much as he did and if Bucky wanted more than just their friendship.

 

Steve’s eyes had lit up and he pulled his head back a little to get a better look at Bucky. “What? Buck, you remember that?” He had asked tentatively, as if drawing attention to it could make it slip Bucky’s mind again.

 

Bucky nodded and looked up at Steve with a loving grin, “Yeah, sometimes I can’t remember what my first name is, but I remember that.”

 

“It’s James,” Steve said and kissed Bucky on the lips.

 

“Thanks,” Bucky chuckled and offered to switch kids with Steve so he could hold Charlie and Bucky would take Sarah. Later that day they settled on Charlie’s middle name to be Samuel after his godfather and Steve and Bucky’s closest friend Sam Wilson. Sam had cried just a little bit because even though he was Sarah’s godfather too, he hadn’t had a kid have him as a namesake before.

 

Now, sitting in the park with his kids just about a year later, Bucky felt like time had once again slipped through his grasp. His babies were growing up too fast and soon Charlie would be talking and Sarah would be going to preschool. How was he going to be able to handle that?

 

Ruckus came over to Bucky on his stop in his loop and jumped up onto the bench next to him and licked his arm. He was always really good about sensing with Bucky wasn’t okay or was working himself up. “Hey, Boy,” Bucky said and scratched the dog’s head. “You coming to my rescue?”

 

Just then, Sarah screamed and Bucky and Ruckus both jumped up off the bench. Sarah had gotten some of her hair caught in the chain of the swing and was crying as she tried tugging it out. Bucky wheeled the stroller over to her quickly and Ruckus sat next to her and gently licked her leg to calm her down in his own way. “It’s okay, Sarah Bear. Daddy will untangle it. Just stop moving and it won’t hurt, okay, Sweetheart?”

 

Sarah sniffled but obediently quit squirming and rubbed at the tears in her eyes. It took a few minutes but Bucky managed to carefully pull the hair from the chain without pulling too much from her head and without having to cut it at all. He sighed once he was finished and hoisted his daughter up to kiss her cheeks and her forehead and croon to her softly that everything was okay.

 

“How about we go get some ice cream to make it all better?” Bucky asked and bent down to pin the leash back on Ruckus and hand the end to Sarah so she could hold it while he held her. Sarah nodded and leaned her head in the crook of her daddy’s neck as Bucky carried her in one arm and pushed the stroller with the other.

 

Steve called while they were out walking around after getting ice cream. Clint and Sam and he had finished up assembling the bed and the dresser and they were just having some snacks before Clint had to go home.

 

Bucky returned home with Sarah now walking beside him again with her face covered in drying chocolate ice cream. “Steve, we’re back,” Bucky called from the door and pushed the stroller up over the landing.

 

“Here, let me help,” Steve took Ruckus and slipped his coat off and hung it up by the door so he could scamper off to his water bowl. Then he noticed the mess that was his little girl. “What happened here?” He asked with a smile.

 

Bucky took Charlie out of the stroller and pushed it off to the side for the time being, he would put it away later. “Oh, we had an incident with the swings. Her hair got caught on the chains and it really hurt so Daddy promised ice cream to make it better.”

 

“It really hurt,” Sarah pouted and reached for Steve to pick her up.

 

Steve took her to the kitchen with Bucky following after them. He started cleaning up her face and Bucky handed Charlie off to Sam so he could get a bottle for him. “But ice cream helped, didn’t it, Love?”

 

Patiently waiting for Steve to finish getting the chocolate off her face, Sarah nodded and agreed that it did help. It was getting later in the afternoon then and would definitely be time for Sarah to go to bed pretty soon. Clint and Sam took off and Bucky fed Charlie and put him down to sleep before going to help Steve make dinner.

 

The three of them had spaghetti together and then Steve gave Sarah a bath while Bucky picked up around the house. Sarah had left out a lot of her toys and the laundry still needed to be folded.

 

After everything that they needed to do for the day was done, Bucky stumbled back into his and Steve’s room and found Steve waiting for him in bed, wearing only his pajama pants and petting Ruckus as he fell asleep.

 

“Our new dresser looks really nice, Baby,” Bucky stripped and pulled on one of Steve’s long sleeve shirts that was so loose and long on Steve that on Bucky it was practically a dress.

 

“Thanks, we had a good time building them today,” Steve said and pulled Bucky down onto the bed. “The guys were messing with me because I said I wanted another baby.”

 

Bucky shot Steve a look and curled up against his side. “Another one? Steve, at least give us two more years so Charlie isn’t a baby anymore.”

 

“I know, I know,” Steve huffed and took Bucky’s hand. “I just want a bunch. You know that.”

 

“I know that,” Bucky nodded. “And you know that I want that too but every couple years, not all at once.”

 

Steve shimmied down in bed and pulled the covers over both of them. “It would be just like having twins if we got another one now.”

 

Bucky grimaced and kissed Steve to shut him up. “Let’s discuss it some other time. We can talk to the agency and see if there is anyone in their early stages of pregnancy so we could have another kid in nine months. Or maybe there is a two or three-year-old who needs to be adopted.” He burrowed into Steve’s chest and mumbled. “But right now, I want to sleep.”

 

“Okay, go to sleep,” Steve conceded and flicked off the lamp on the nightstand. “I love you, Bucky. Sleep well.”

 

Bucky’s voice was muffled by his tiredness and his face being mashed against Steve as he said, “I love you too, Steve. Don’t wake me up too early.”

 

“Of course not, Baby.”

 

And Bucky was out like a light.

\---


End file.
